April 22, 2011
By Mark Athitakis
In Critical Mass's ongoing “In Retrospect,” in which contemporary critics revisit former winners and finalists for the National Book Critics Awards, Mark Athitakis revisits John Updike's Roger's Version, a finalist
August 25, 2010
By Vince Passaro
In Critical Mass's ongoing “In Retrospect,” in which contemporary critics revisit former winners and finalists for the National Book Critics Awards, Vince Passaro, a critic and author of “Violence Nudity
August 18, 2010
By Wyatt Mason
The following essay on Philip Roth's 1979 NBCC finalist The Ghost Writer, from Nona Balakian Citation winning critic Wyatt Mason, is part of the Critical Mass In Retrospect series, in
May 23, 2010
By Scott Esposito
A Theory of Everything — Norman Rush's “Mating” The following essay by NBCC member Scott Esposito on Norman Rush's 1991 fiction finalist Mating, is part of the Critical Mass
May 18, 2010
By Stephen Burt
The following essay by NBCC board member Stephen Burt on A.R. Ammons, whose A Coast of Trees won the 1981 NBCC award in poetry, is part of the NBCC's “In
April 26, 2010
By Adam Kirsch
The following essay by Adam Kirsch on Robert Lowell's 1977 NBCC winner, “Day by Day,” appeared in 2007 in the In Retrospect series on Critical Mass in which critics and
April 7, 2010
By Michael Gorra
The following essay from Balakian winner Michael Gorra, a look back at Shirley Hazzard's 1980 National Book Critics Circle fiction award winner, The Transit of Venus, was first published in
September 11, 2009
By Jane Ciabattari
The following essay by NBCC board member and Balakian award winner Maureen N. McLane on John Ashbery’s “Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror,” winner of the first NBCC Award in Poetry
May 9, 2009
By Eric Banks
In this series, writers look back at past NBCC award winners. Here, poet Randall Mann revisits My Alexandria, by Mark Doty, recipient of the 1993 NBCC award in poetry. My
March 30, 2009
By Jane Ciabattari
Emily Warn on Anne Winters’s “The Key to the City,” a 1986 finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award in poetry, is the newest installment in the National Book